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Post by countrymom22 on Apr 17, 2023 21:35:28 GMT
This winter, for the first time in 57 years that I've been raising chickens, my girls stopped laying completely. Even last springs pullets. I've never had that happen. I haven't changed anything, no light in the coop ever, and we had a relatively mild winter with almost no snow. I saw many posts on YouTube and Facebook from people saying it was the TSC feed. So we went to a feed co-op and bought their pellets and within days, the girls were laying. To make sure it wasn't a fluke, I put them back on the TSC feed after 2 solid weeks of laying, and within 3 days they stopped laying again. Then I tried putting the TSC feed in one pan and the co-op feed in another, and the girls wouldn't touch the TSC feed! If all I feed them is the TSC feed they only eat enough to keep them alive, while they clean up the co-op feeds. Some people on YouTube actually bought TSC feed and had it tested, but didn't find anything unusual, although they did admit that they only tested one bag of each feed and that they didn't test for the hundreds of things that they could have, due to the costs involved.
I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this or knows of anyone who has first hand.
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Post by Maura on Apr 18, 2023 14:06:35 GMT
TSC doesn't make their own feed. I am guessing that you are feeding Purina. Dumor is a Purina label.I believe they have changed their recipe. I have not used commercial feed for my current batch of chickens. I make my own. It is cheaper and I believe better quality. I get oats, wheat, and corn from the elevator. For the chicks, I feed quinoa, oatmeal, wheat, and corn meal. I presoak everything. Look up fermented chicken feed.
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Post by mzgarden on Apr 18, 2023 17:00:00 GMT
We had the same issue but we get our feed from a local mill. I finally picked up a bag of cat fish food and put those out - they're about 30% protein. Girls started laying in 2 days. Went through 2 bags of the cat fish food mixed in with their regular food and they continued to lay. Now they're doing fine again - but now the weather enables them to free range again, so they can pick up the extra protein outside. I don't know what happened this past Fall/Winter - it was widespread, whatever it was.
We tried also mixing our own feed but they picked out what they wanted to eat and left the rest - so we went back to pellets.
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Post by mogal on Apr 18, 2023 17:51:50 GMT
Maura, whole oats (not steamed or crimped) are over $30/50# bag so homemade is no longer an option for me.
I've fed Dumor 16% layer pellets for a good while now along with fermented scratch grains. So far, so good with last spring's pullets and some older birds.
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Post by dustawaits on Apr 19, 2023 15:42:43 GMT
Brush poison was found in the feed..even in the organic feed.
My ducks only stopped laying this week.
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Post by countrymom22 on Apr 19, 2023 22:37:38 GMT
I've been hearing about this for months now. Maybe this brush poison is a seperate issue? You would think that they would have corrected the issue with subsequent batches of feed. Makes me leery. When I stopped at TSC last weekend to get some mulch I saw people buying chicken feed and I wanted to say something to them, but I know the manager there and for all I know the issue could have been over, so I kept my thoughts to myself. But I felt very conflicted.
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Post by dustawaits on Apr 19, 2023 23:08:20 GMT
They did not call it brush killer. Glysophate I think it was.
It is a strong killer to use by the road or under power lines.
Reading the article made me wonder who was putting brush killer
in the feed.
If they are vaccinating baby pigs sit MRNA then why would they not
go further.
They do not want us to raise our own food. Why they us to starve beats me.
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Post by mzgarden on Apr 20, 2023 9:54:54 GMT
dustawaits, do you have a link to this information? I tried searching and found claims and promises by some people to have feed tested, but I'm not able to find any actual test results or confirmation. Thanks.
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Post by dustawaits on Apr 20, 2023 14:05:28 GMT
mzgarden, I do not know what happened to the search. I think maybe the website has been removed. It was talking about three different feeds that TSC sells. Purina , Dumore and Happy Chick I believe is the name. It went into detail about each ,ingredients, and anything harmful which they said was all below the harm stage if it was in the feed. It mentioned that the organic feed had more of the brush killer in it than the others did but not enough to hurt.
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Post by countrymom22 on Apr 21, 2023 0:09:10 GMT
dustawaits, they want us to starve to death to reduce the Earth's population. Also, those people who are smart enough to grow their own food can think for themselves. That makes us dangerous.
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Post by mogal on May 7, 2023 1:40:28 GMT
DH and I were talking about the pelleted oat substitute our local feed is selling for horses. DH reminded me we had a bag of real oats in the old freezer we use to store feeds and I told him I was planning to plant some to form a seed stock to grow on later. I missed buying some hull-less oats from Fedco this spring and could kick myself. Those would be easy to use as human or animal feed since they have such a light husk holding the seed.
Countrymom22 said: "they want us to starve to death to reduce the Earth's population. Also, those people who are smart enough to grow their own food can think for themselves. That makes us dangerous." I think it also makes the unfed masses dangerous if they can get to areas where people can grow food if they so choose.
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Post by katgen on May 12, 2023 13:02:55 GMT
We were feeding ours Dumor or Producer's Pride, both of which are Purina owned foods. They quit laying in August last year. We tried all kinds of things and I keep telling my husband I thought it was the feed, that they had changed up the mix. Finally he started to take me more seriously and started looking into it.
We started mixing our own feed (oats, sunflower seeds, manna, and I think 2 other things) and within days they started to lay again. We haven't had any issues with them not laying since. I think we started the new feed in February.
Since then, Purina has come out and said that they did change up their feed in certain areas (which is why some were having no issues and claiming that feed brand was perfectly fine). We will never buy Purina feed again for our chickens, dogs, or any other animal.
I do find it interesting that someone above stated that they put the Purina feed out with the other feed and the chickens wouldn't touch the Purina feed. They even knew something wasn't right about it!
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Post by Maura on May 12, 2023 15:57:47 GMT
Katgen, I'm with you. If at any time I buy commercial feed I will not buy Purina. I also don't buy their dog food.
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